UK midwifery question

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Since I didn't have kids when I lived in the UK and want to go back as a Midwife I have some questions for anyone who can help.

Are there any midwives in the UK who do women's health and also delivery babies? I am interested in providing women's health care (paps, birth control, etc) and also in pregnancy care and delivery.

I know that midwives do shift work in the UK but do you follow your own patients? What about homebirth midwives? How are they treated? Can you do both hospital and home deliveries. Also, has anyone done an adaption period (since I will be US trained I assume I need to do that)? How long are they typically.

Any info you can give me on the working conditions and duties would be great.

Thanks.

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Specializes in midwifery, ophthalmics, general practice.

I'm not a midwide (well not for a few years anyway!!) but here midwifes do all antenatal care, deliver the babies and provide post natal care up to 10 days post delivery. they are involved in parentcraft teaching. some midwifes do home deliverys- depends I think on the situation

midwifes dont get involved in pap smears (we just call them smears) that tends to be the remit of the practice nurse (its one of the many things we do!) Birth control etc is also not part of a midwifes remit. thats done by nurses who have training in family planning.

I think the midwifes involvement with the woman during pregnacy is far greater than in the states. she takes full responsibilty for the care and only refers to a doctor when a problem arises... over here pregnancy is seen a natural state and not an illness so we dont need to involve the docs! not how you seem to think in the states!

hope this helps............. and I'm sure some of my midwife collegues on here will jump in and correct me if I got it wrong!!

Karen

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Agree with what's Karen has said, also not midwifery trained but I would also think to whether any qualification you earn in the US would be recognised here in the UK. to be a midwife in the UK involves either a 18 month or 3 yr course. (18 months is for already qualified RGN's)

Quoted on NMC

'the standard of training for midwives is common throughout the EU and must be at least 3 yrs long as an initial registration (at least 156 weeks full time) or 18 months if undertaken following registration as a general nurse in the UK.

to be registered as a midwife in the UK you must be able to demonstrate:

Qualification and registration (if applicable) in your own country and that you wish to practice as a midwife in the UK.

That the training undertaken was specific to the role of midwife, enabling you to meet the unique requirements of midwifery practice.

that the ratio of the therory/practice componment in the training programme was 50:50

at least 12 months post qualification experience as a midwife within the last 5 yrs.

It does mention a few more requirements and how to register on this link

http://www.nmc-uk.org/nmc/main/publications/ReginUKpages.pdf

Hope this helps

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

Hi,

Yes as the other have said you have to have a further 18 months training to work as a midwife in the UK. I know that there is a severe midwife crisis here in the UK and that they are considering employing overseas midwives as we employ overseas nurses but the problem has been that the training from overseas had not met the requirements here in UK. In my trust they are trying to sort out an adaption course but it is causing a few problems.

Mainly because here in UK midwives are practioners in their own right and that unless there is a problem a woman can go through all her pregancy, l& D, post partum and never see a doctor.

I was a community midwife and I did all my own deliveries in the main hospital, birthing centres and in their home. I followed women from conception through to 28 days post partum. It can be a very stressful job over here as the total responsibility is the midwives untill you request advice help from a DR. Very enjoyable too. Midwives have a duty of care for 28 days post partum. They also have responsibility for 25 years for all care delivered during each and every pregnancy.

I have since left midwifery to do nursing again as I was told it is very difficult to get a job in US as a midwife, but I still have lots of contacts if you need any more help.

Midwives can also specialise further and can be involved in pre conception, family planning, child protection ect. I was involved with sure start where we covered a multitude of woman's and child health care issues.

Let me know if I can help any more.

kay

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Kay, it would be difficult for you to get a job as a midwife in the US, but I am CERTAIN any hospital would snap you up in a second if you applied to work as a L&D nurse. I've worked with many UK trained midwives as L&D nurses in Canada and they were absolutely covetted by nurse managers because their skills and expertise were always top notch. I have never met a UK midwife that wasn't an exceptional L&D nurse.

Off topic, but how hard is it to get into the 18 month programs in the UK? I was interested in doing that one day, but I don't know if the cost is prohibitive or if they would even accept me as a foreign trained RN or not.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Kay, it would be difficult for you to get a job as a midwife in the US, but I am CERTAIN any hospital would snap you up in a second if you applied to work as a L&D nurse. I've worked with many UK trained midwives as L&D nurses in Canada and they were absolutely covetted by nurse managers because their skills and expertise were always top notch. I have never met a UK midwife that wasn't an exceptional L&D nurse.

Off topic, but how hard is it to get into the 18 month programs in the UK? I was interested in doing that one day, but I don't know if the cost is prohibitive or if they would even accept me as a foreign trained RN or not.

When I did my 18 month degree we had two Spanish RN's on our course. It was difficult because they didnt speak English when they started, so I know they take students from other countries but it may well be they were accepted because of the European Union.

Contact Southampton University Dept of Nursing and midwifery, I will try and find out some infor for you. I dont know about the cost because they paid me my salary to train I paid nothing for the degree. My advice to you would be to work as RN here first and then apply to do training as midwife.

Off topic, I have to say i enjoy you comments on other threads they are always strong worded and sometimes controversial. :rotfl:

Kay

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Well thanks Kay (for both the info and the comment:)). I have always had a chronic case of foot in mouth disease and I know I need to learn to temper my comments more... I've been described as "too honest" more than once in my life and I always regret if I hurt someone's feelings, but it doesn't seem to stop me from opening wide and putting my foot back in my mouth another day. I guess that should be one of my New Year's resolutions (try to word things less bluntly)...

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Well thanks Kay (for both the info and the comment:)). I have always had a chronic case of foot in mouth disease and I know I need to learn to temper my comments more... I've been described as "too honest" more than once in my life and I always regret if I hurt someone's feelings, but it doesn't seem to stop me from opening wide and putting my foot back in my mouth another day. I guess that should be one of my New Year's resolutions (try to word things less bluntly)...

Well I guess that is something we have in common, I am direct and everybody knows where they stand-not done me much harm as I have matured in age, but got me in loads of trouble when i was younger!!!! lol :rotfl:

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Well I guess that is something we have in common, I am direct and everybody knows where they stand-not done me much harm as I have matured in age, but got me in loads of trouble when i was younger!!!! lol :rotfl:

Well then maybe there's hope for me yet :chuckle

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Well then maybe there's hope for me yet :chuckle

Yes maybe but no guarentees, I was a bit abrupt at work yesterday and I think I upset my clinical nurse specialist, and she is so lovely. So Of course I have worrying myself silly all night, so when I go in on a late I will go in search and apologise!!!!!!!

Hang my head low

Unfortunalty it wont stay low for long because I am always positive and happy at work and drive everybody mad, i think they would enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, and did i tell you I have a great singing voice too :rotfl: just like the rejects on American Idol! :)

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Good luck:) Fortunately for me, I've never done it at work. I tend to be more blunt in my time off (and that includes this bb)...

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